Alright, hey everybody, welcome to Valley Creek Church.  We are so glad that you are here with us today.  Whatever campus you may be at, whether you're at Denton, Flower Mound, Louisville, the venue and extension site, watching online somewhere in the world or somewhere else that I forgot to mention, can we all just welcome each other together for a moment?  We're so glad that you're here with us this weekend and today, we are wrapping up out series called disappointed.  For the past six weeks, we have been talking about finding hope in the midst of life and really it hasn't been like six individual messages.  It has kind of been one big message spread out over these six weeks.  So if you've missed any of them, I would encourage you to go back and watch online so you get the full revelation and sense of what god is speaking to us because this has been a really big series in the life of our church.  It has been a big series because I think god has been doing a deep work inside of us.

I think god has been healing or bringing hope to the places that are deep in our lives that have been deeply disappointed.  I know he has been doing that for me and I believe he has been doing that for you.  In fact, I think in a lot of ways it's like restorative sleep, like you're getting restored and you're not even sure what's happening.  I think the series has been restorative hope.  Just by the very fact that you've been sitting here and receiving what god wants to say, I think it has been restoring hope within your soul and we have been taking a look at the story of Joseph, an old testament hero of the faith.  His story spans Genesis 37 through 50, 14 chapters and one more time, I'm going to tell you the story of Joseph so everybody is on the same page as we bring it together.

Joseph is the favorite son of his father, Jacob.  Joseph has this robe of many colors representing the favor that he has from his father and Joseph has this dream, this divine destiny from god that god is going to raise him up and he is going to be the great ruler. But Joseph's brothers hated him.  So they rip off his robe, throw them in the pit, tell his father wild animal killed him and they sell him to slave traders.  Joseph is sold into slavery and he ends up in Egypt.  He is bought by a guy named Potiphar.  So Joseph started serving Potiphar well and because the favor of god is on his life, he is doing great things even though he is a slave.  And then one day Potiphar's wife makes a pass at Joseph but he rejects her and because she is rejected by him, she is so mad, she spins the story, tells Potiphar Joseph made a pass at her.  Potiphar is furious and has Joseph thrown in prison.  Now, Joseph is in prison even though he hasn't done anything wrong and because the favor of god is still on his life, the prison warden promotes him.  So Joseph basically runs the entire prison.  He is the lead prisoner serving the other prisoners.  And one day pharaoh is upset with the cupbearer and the baker, two of his servants and he throws them in prison.  And because Joseph is kind of running the prison, he is serving these two guys and they both have dreams and Joseph can tell something is wrong and he says, what's up? 

They say we have these dreams.  We don't know what they mean.  So Joseph interprets them for him and says, hey, the cupbearer, you're going to get out of here in three days.  When you get out of here, remember me, tell pharaoh about me and get me out of this place because I didn't do anything wrong.  Cupbearer gets out of jail and completely forgets about Joseph.  You want to talk about life with disappointment.  Eleven years of disappointment.  Two more years goes by after he has been forgotten and finally pharaoh has a dream.  And this time, he wants that dream interpreted and the cupbearer remembers Joseph and says there is a guy in prison, you should go get him.  He could do it for you.  So pharaoh calls for Joseph after 13 years after he has been thrown in the pit.  He finally has his moment before pharaoh and interprets pharaoh's dream.  He says there is going to be seven years of abundance and seven years of famine.  Find a wise man and collect all kinds of stuff during the seven year of abundance so that Egypt will have grain during the seven years of famine.  Pharaoh was so moved by it that he promotes Joseph to rule all of Egypt.

Joseph has all this wisdom from god, for seven years saves up the grain and then in seven years of famine, the whole world comes to Egypt to buy bread.  Ultimately, Joseph's family comes to Egypt to buy bread.  He was reunited with them, reconciles with them after 22 years.  Disappointment takes time, 22 years and he completely fulfills the fullness of the destiny that the god has in store for him.  What is amazing about Joseph is wave after wave after wave of disappointment and yet Joseph never became hopeless.  He learned how to deal with disappointment in the godly way and so he fulfilled the fullness of his destiny the way few of us ever do.  So what I want to do today is give you the final closing three thoughts on this series, maybe the most important things that we have talked about in this entire series on how you can find hope in midst of life.  First thing is this, don't allow your disappointment with life to become disappointment with god.  The great temptation of disappointment is to project it upon god.  And if we're honest, it happens a whole lot more than we care to admit. 

I mean if you look at the life of Joseph, Joseph was life of full of unmet expectations.  There were all kinds of disappointments that happened around him and to him and yet he never projected them upon god.  Just listen to these verses.  When Potiphar's wife is making a pass at him, Genesis 39, he says, no one is greater in this house than I am.  My master has withheld nothing from me except you because you're his wife.  How then I could do such a wicked thing and sin against god?  People who are disappointed in god don't really care about sinning against god.  He isn't disappointed in god.  Or how about when he is in jail and he is interpreting the dreams of the cupbearer?  He says, we both had dreams that answered but there is no one to interpret them.  Then Joseph said to them, do not interpretation belong to god?  Tell me your dreams.  People who are disappointed in god don't expect god to move on their behalf.

Or how about when Joseph was standing before pharaoh?  Pharaoh tells him the dream.  Joseph says, I can't do it, but god will give pharaoh the answer he desires.  There it is again.  He is expecting god to move on his behalf or when he is finally confronted with his brothers, the first time and Joseph said to his brothers, come close to me.  They are like, no way.  When they had done so, he said I'm your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt and now don't be distressed and don't be angry with yourself for selling me here because it was to save lives that god sent me ahead of you.  He sees the purposes of god.  He isn't disappointed in god.  Or how about when his father dies, he says to his brother, you intended to harm me but god intended it for good to accomplish what's being done the saving of many lives.  It's so easy to look back on the story of Joseph and say of course god was good to Joseph.  Look at the story.  That's called hindsight.  But in the moments of disappointment, Joseph refused to become disappointed with god even though he was disappointed with life.

And he passed maybe the greatest test of all, the refusal to allow your heart to become disappointed with god.  You see the great temptation for you and me is to allow that disappointment of life to become disappointment with god, to allow the pain of our circumstances to cause us to question god's character.  And so here is the question.  Are you disappointed with god?  I know this is like really a awkward question to answer in church.  You're like I'm not even sure I can answer that honestly here.  Are you disappointed in god?  And right away, you probably say no.  Okay, I'm not talking about your mind.  How about in here?  Maybe it's not even today.  Maybe it's something that happened years ago in your life.  Maybe it was when your parents got divorced when you were a kid.  Maybe it was something that happened to you when you were young.

Maybe it was a healing that never came.  Maybe it was a dream that never took place.  Maybe it was that marriage that blew up.  Maybe it's the ministry that never took off.  Maybe god didn't move in the way you were expecting him to move.  Are you disappointed in god?  You see, the moment you become disappointed in god, you lose all hope because he is the source of hope.  I mean, do you remember the story of John, the Baptist?  Kind of unique guy.  He is Jesus's cousin and he wears camel hairs clothing, eats locust and honey and tells everybody to repent.  He is preparing the way for Jesus.  He is basically John.  And because he is preaching repent and telling everybody to do that, he ends up getting thrown in prison because people don't like the message of repentance always.  So he is in prison, Matthew 11, here is what it says.  When John heard in prison what Jesus was doing, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him, are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?  In other words, Jesus, are you the one we should really be putting our hope in, or should we look somewhere else?

Jesus replied, go back and report to John what you hear and see, the blind received sight, the lame walked, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the good news is preached to the poor, blessed is the man who doesn't fall away on account of me.  It's a profound story.  John spent his entire life preparing the way for Jesus.  And then one day because he is preaching the gospel, he is thrown in prison.  And John is sitting there and he is thinking to himself, of course, Jesus is going to come and get me.  I mean we're cousins.  Man, he is coming.  If he isn't coming for that, he is coming because I've been wearing camel hairs clothing and you have no idea how itchy this thing is but I did it for you, Jesus, so you're coming.  And yet time goes by, Jesus doesn't come.  So finally through the prison bars, John calls his disciples and he says, go ask Jesus, are you the one to come or should we expect someone else?  In other words, go ask Jesus, should I really be putting my hope in you because you're not meeting my expectations right now.  So the disciples go and they find Jesus and a big crowd is there.  Jesus is doing miracles, signs and wanders.

Amazing day, the disciples are watching.  Finally, there is a break in the action and they walk up to Jesus, say, Jesus, we don't know if you know this or not, but John is in jail.  Like John, your cousin, the one who spent his entire life preparing the way for you to come and he wants to know like, are you going to come and get him?  Are you going to meet his expectations?  And Jesus looks right back at those disciples and he says, go tell John, what you see and hear.  The blind sees, the deaf hears, the dead are raised, demons are cast out.  Go tell John the kingdom is coming.  But blessed is the man who doesn't fall away on account of me.  In other words, blessed is the man who doesn't walk away because I don't do for him what he thinks I should do for him.  Blessed is the man who doesn't allow the unmet expectations of life to become disappointment with god.  So the disciples leave and they go back to John and John is sitting in jail.  He says, did you find him?  They said, yeah.  What did he say?

John, it's amazing.  Blind eyes are opening, deaf ears, they can hear, the dead are raised, leprosy are -- I mean the kingdom is coming but what did Jesus say?  He said, John, he isn't coming this time.  And he wanted us to tell you that blessed is the man who doesn't allow the unmet expectations of life to become disappointment with god.  So John walks away from the prison window and he sits down in the corner.  He had to wrestle through that.  And so will you and so do I.  You see, that story has ministered to me for years and the reason that story has ministered for me for years is because my 8-year-old daughter, she has a rare incurable autoimmune disease.  I don't speak a lot about it from the platform if you read [indecipherable] [0:11:53.6] talk about it like in the last page of the book.  I don't like to talk about it a lot in here.  But for eight years, I've watched my daughter work through this brokenness.

And even our closest friends and family members, they know all about it but they have no idea like what it's really like and so for eight years, our family has never once actually had a full night sleep through the night.  For eight years, I've watched the toll that's taken on my wife.  For eight years, I've watched the toll that's taken on my son.  For eight years, I've watched my daughter wrestled through pain and brokenness and not being able to do the things that everyone else does and we have tried everything, gone to every doctor, every appointment, every medicine, every holistic care.  People have given us ideas.  They've given us wisdom.  We prophesied, we prayed, we have done all those things and yet she isn't healed yet.  I want to talk about disappointment.  So if I'm honest with you, it's hard to get up here some weeks and try to give you hope when I'm dealing with the disappointment in my own life.  But blessed is the man, who does not allow the unmet expectation of life to become disappointment with god.

So what do I do?  I do everything we've talked about in the series.  I hold on to the promises of god.  I wait, I worshiped.  I refused to give up.  I remember he is with me and I try to pass every test that comes.  How about you?  What are your disappointments and what are you doing now?  Back in chapter three that says, though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes in the vine, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in stalls.  In other words, though everything is disappointing, I will rejoice in the lord.  I will live joyful in god, my savior, the sovereign.  Lord is my strength.  He makes my feet like the feet of the deer and he enables me to go on to the heights.  In other words, he says, even if life is disappointing, I refuse to become disappointed with god.

People with hope refuse to become disappointed with god even though they don't understand what's happening.  I mean here is our problem.  We're projecting on gods that don't actually belong to him.   Like if you ever had a bad day and you come home and you take that bad day out on your family.  Anyone willing to admit that besides me?  Like you go to work, you go to school.  You go wherever you're.  You're hurt by your boss.  You're hurt by your friends.  You're hurt by your teacher or whatever.  You're super frustrated.  You come home and you're just like take it out on everyone in your family.  It's like you're blaming them for every bad thing that happened that day.  Well, they didn't cause it, right?  But that's what we do to god.  John 10:10, Jesus says, Satan has come to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus has come that you might life.  In other words, everything in your life that has been stolen, killed or destroyed has come from the hand of the kingdom of darkness.  Jesus has come to bring you life.

To bring you hope in the midst of that pain, he is not cause of it.  So Satan, one of his greatest tricks is to get us to blame god for what he has done.  So here is my question.  Where are you blaming god for what Satan has done?  And how do you know if you're actually disappointed in god?  It's the little things.  Very few people have the courage to actually say I'm disappointed in god.  It's the little things, you stop praying, you stop worshipping.  You start to kind of pull away from god instead of running to him.  You become skeptical or critical.  You will find yourself with this numb heart.  You start embracing religion and then you start to believe it this is as good as it gets.  Can I tell you?  This is not as good as it gets.  The best is always yet to come.  You say, how?  Why?  Because until the new heaven and the new earth come, the best is always yet to come because the kingdom has come and the kingdom is coming and even then when we live in the new heaven and the new earth, the best is still yet to come because we will spent all of eternity discovering how wide, how long, how deep and how high is the love of god, so the best is always yet to come.

And so here is the question.  What do we know about god?  We know god is love.  First John 4:16.  We know god is good, Psalm 136:1, he is good and his love endures forever.  We know god is faithful, second Timothy 2:13.  And we know god wants what's best for you, Romans 8:28.  He is working all things together for the good of those who love him.  That's what we hold on to midst of the disappointment of life, because what it means is that god will always do what's for your good and his glory.  That's what we got to hold on to, because when you forget that, we got left.  I mean I hate to be one to break this to you but you realize god won't meet all your expectations and that's a good thing.  Says a good thing, yeah why?  Because god wants to do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine, Ephesians 3:21, he wants to do more.

And the second thing is because we have a whole lot of misplaced expectations.  Let's be honest.  The disciples were disappointed in Jesus that Jesus died.  Can we all agree that was a misplaced expectation?  And that was good to be disappointed in that moment.  Listen to me, this is really important.  You've to remember, hope is the confident expectation of the goodness of god, it's not god meeting my expectations.  Hope is the confident expectation of the goodness of god, it's not god meeting my expectations.  A whole lot of us are disappointed in god because he didn't do what we wanted him to do.  That's called a wish not hope.  And even if he didn't do what you wanted him to do, he still did what was good because he always do it for your good and his glory.

Like Psalm 27:4 says, be brave and courageous.  Never lose hope.  Yes, keep on waiting for he will never disappoint you.  He won't always do what you expect but he will always do what's good.  And if he always did what you expected, you would be god and he wouldn't.  The truth is at the end of the day, you don't want the god you can understand or control.  You're like I want to understand.  Listen if this little mind can understand god, that's a bad god.  You want a god that's love.  And sometimes you've to embrace the mystery of the unmet expectation of life.  And so what do you do if you're disappointed in god?  Confess and repent.  First John 1:9.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Sin, it's missing the mark.  When you're disappointed in god, you're missing the mark and you are thinking you confess and he will cleanse your wrong thinking and make it right.

And then repent.  Acts 3:19, repent change your thinking, change your direction, the time of refreshing may come and he will fill your heart with hope.  He says why does that matter?  It matters so much because this year in getting rooted in Jesus, our entire theme for the year, hear me I think for a whole lot of us, there is a rock of disappointment with god right about here.  We don't admit it, we don't acknowledge it.  We're not even aware of it but there is a rock of disappointment with god right here, so our roots only go so far and then they stop.  And it looks good on the surface but listen to me if you're -- it's impossible to get deeply rooted in Jesus if you're deeply disappointed with Jesus.  You will pull away instead of lean in.  He says but I'm disappointed.  I know.  Me too, man.  And so is Joseph.  But don't blame god for what the kingdom of darkness has done, which brings me into the second thing and it's this.  When you know you have the favor of your father, you will always have hope. 

Think about this.  The key to Joseph's hope is found in the very first verses of when we meet Joseph.  Genesis 37:3 says, now Israel, Jacob, his father loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him in his old age and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.  So catch this.  From the moment, Joseph is born, he knows he has the favor of his father.  From the very first breath he has, he knows he is loved and his father gives him this robe, this richly ornamented robe that reminds him everywhere he goes that he has the favor of his father.  So it didn't matter if they threw him in the pit.  It didn't matter if he was a slave.  It didn't matter if he was imprisoned.  He knew he had the favor his father, so he always had hope.  That is the key to a life of hope.  You see the whole story of Joseph, it's a real story that really happened but it's also a prophetic picture of Jesus.  The story of Joseph is a story of Jesus.

When Jesus starts his ministry, the first thing the Father does in Matthew 3:17 is declare this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.  Jesus says, he hasn't done anything yet, but he starts with the favor of his father, the love of his father and he is clothed with the robe of righteousness.  And so it didn't matter if the disciples betrayed him, if the crowds rejected him, the Pharisees wanted to kill him, his family called him crazy.  It didn't matter if he was thrown in the grave or went to the cross, he always had hope because he had the favor of his father.  And so do you.  If you're included in Christ and that means that's true of you.  You see, Christianity starts the same way as the story of Joseph starts.  The moment you by faith puts your trust in Jesus, you're born again and you instantly have the favor of your Father.  The Father speaks from heaven and says you're as beloved son or daughter in whom he is well pleased before you do anything right even after you do everything wrong.  And like Jacob, the Father gives you a robe of favor.  Isaiah 61:10, I will greatly rejoice in the lord, my soul shall be joyful and my god for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

Listen to me, they can take your job, they can take your health, they can take your family, your finances, your freedom, they can take everything you got.  They cannot take the favor of your Father, which means they can never take your hope.  You can give it to them, but they cannot take it from you.  Hope is not found in the condition of my circumstances, it's found in the favor of my Father.  That's why Joseph never lost his hope.  It's a prophetic picture of who we're now in Jesus.  You remember the love chapter in First Corinthians 13, Paul writes.  You hear it like every wedding.  Love is passion, love is kind, you know they go through all that.  You're like I hope you people do that in two years from now.  You know that kind of --

Paul gets to the end of it and he ended that chapter, First Corinthians 13:13, he says and now these three remain, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.  And when we talk about it, we often say, faith, hope and love, faith, hope and love, faith, hope and love.  We forget though that the order actually were its backwards.  It's love, hope, faith.  So he says these three remain, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.  So it's love that gives you hope and it's hope that gives you faith.  It goes in an order.  It's love that gives you hope.  It's hope that gives you faith.  I mean think about it.  Love, what is love?  First John 3:16, this is how we know what love is that Jesus laid down his life for us.  So Jesus laid down his life for us and he loves me.  All of the sudden, I will always have hope because hope is the confident expectation of the goodness of god and if Jesus gave me his life, will he not then give me all things?  And if I have hope, I will have faith because Hebrew 11:1 says faith is being sure of what I hope for certain of what I do not see.

So faith is confident expectation of the goodness of god.  I have the confidence expectation of goodness of god because I know I'm loved.  It's love that gives you hope.  It's hope that gives you faith.  Just think about it like this.  Think about it like with my wife.  When I know she loves me, I will have hope, a confident expectation that she is going to do good things in my life and when I have that hope, I can have faith.  I can operate and move in a way even if I don't see it because I confidently expect her to do good because I know she loves me.  It's true with god.  When you know god loves you, all of the sudden it doesn't really matter what's happening in your life because you have a confident expectation of the goodness of god, you have hope, and all of sudden you're now able to move in life by faith, boldly stepping out, going where he asked you to go, doing things that don't make sense, things that other people don't understand because you confidently expect him to do good because you know that he loves you.  So if you don't have faith, it's because you don't have hope and if you don't have hope, it's because you forgot you're loved.

If you don't have hope, it's because you forgot you're loved.  Genuine hope comes from unconditional love.  I mean Romans 5:5, probably the theme verse for this series.  It says, and hope doesn't disappoint us because he has poured out his love into our heart through holy spirits he has given us.  Remember we have said heavenly hope and earthly disappointment can't coexist.   They can't coexist in your heart at the same time because they sit at the same place in your heart and so disappointment is meant to be a temporary emotion not a permanent perspective.  And hope is not meant to be a temporary emotion, it's meant to be a permanent perspective.  And hope is meant to displace disappointment but how does hope actually displace disappointment?  Through the love he has poured out in our hearts, through the holy spirit he has given us.  In other words, the holy spirit is the tangible favor of the Father upon your life and all of the sudden, you start to realize it's that love that fills me with hope.  So if you've lost your hope, it's because you forgot you're loved.

See, hear me, god is not disappointed in you.  You're not an unmet expectation, the god.  It doesn't matter where you've been, what you've done, the sin in your life, the secrets you keep, the brokenness you've got, you're not an unmet expectation to god, why?  Because Jesus has already perfectly fulfilled every expectation that will ever be required from you.  Think about this.  We talked about -- this is your expectation, this is reality, this is the level of your disappointment.  This is the expectation that god had of all of us, the law.  This was your reality.  This was the disappointment.  So what did Jesus do?  Jesus came and perfectly fulfilled everything that will ever be required of you.  He not only cancelled your debt and took care of that disappointment, he credited your account because he has an over payment.  So not only is god not disappointed in you, you actually have his favor.

Second Corinthians 5:21, god made Jesus who knew no sin, who was no way disappointed to god to be the disappointment of our life so that in him we might become the righteousness or have the favor of god.  I mean here is the question.  Is there anything you can do to earn god's favor?  Are you sure about that?  Let's go let hang there for a moment just for fun.  Alright.  There is nothing you can do to earn god's approval.  Ephesians 2:8 and 9, you've been saved by grace through faith.  It's not of yourself, not by work so that no man can boast.  So if there is nothing you can do to earn god's approval, why do you think there is something you can do to earn god's disappointment?  This matters.  Grace is undeserved favor and supernatural empowerment.  It's literally what it means.  Grace, undeserved favor and supernatural empowerment. 

So when I have the grace of god in my life, I have the undeserved favor of my Father and that's supernaturally empowers me to live with hope.  When you know you have the favor of your Father, you will always have hope and then some of you who are sitting here, you're like you can't tell people that.  You're going to give them permission to sin.  Hear me, people don't need permission to sin.  They are really good at just choosing to do it on their own and you completely miss the point.  We're not giving people permission to have sin, we're giving people permission to have hope.  Because it is impossible to have a hope when you believe god is disappointed in you.  It's impossible.  Favor doesn't come from what you do, it comes from what Jesus has done.  And so here is my question, where are you disappointed?  Man, it's real.  It's real.  Don't let anyone tell you, it's not real and to get over it.  It's real.  Where are you disappointed? 

You still have the favor of god in that situation.  So if you lost your hope, stop looking for hope and start receiving love because love gives you hope and hope will give you faith, which brings me to the last thing and it's this.  Don't let yesterday's disappointment becomes tomorrow's expectations.  Don't let yesterday's disappointment become tomorrow's expectation.  I literally wrote this point for the first message of the series because I didn't have time, I bumped it to week two and then I was going to put it in week two and then I didn't have time, so I bumped it to week three and then I did not have time then and so finally I just decided it's the last point of the whole series.  Maybe the most inspiring thing about Joseph is that Joseph never became a victim.  He never became skeptical and he never became bitter in the midst of disappointment.  He never allowed yesterday's disappointment to become today's expectations.  Man, I want to be like that.  Joseph was hurt.  He was disappointed.  He was real, man.

Thirteen years of disappointment after disappointment after disappointment and yet he never came into agreement with the spirit of disappointment.  He never made the declaration over his life like things will always be this way, people will always treat me like that, god will never there for me, things will never change.  No, he had a confident expectation in the goodness of god, he held on to hope, passed every test there was, and refused to allow what happened yesterday to determine his thinking today.  I'm convinced that most of us live allowing yesterday's disappointment to become tomorrow's expectation.  We were rejected then, so we expect to be rejected today.  We were lonely then, so we expect to be lonely today.  The breakthrough didn't come then, so the breakthrough isn't going to come now.  It didn't change back then, it certainly not going to change now.  They treated me like that then, they are certainly going to treat me like that now.  And it's like all these things have happened in our past all of the sudden become a prophecy that we speak over our future.

Unmet expectations attract unmet expectations.  Disappointment leads to disappointment.  Like here is the deal.  If you expect to be disappointed tomorrow because you were disappointed yesterday, guess what, you will be disappointed tomorrow.  You say why?  Because you will always find what you're looking for.  Hebrews 11:1, faith is being sure of what we hope for certain of what we don't see.  So catch it.  Faith is the confident expectation of the goodness of god regardless of what I see.  So what faith does is faith reaches into the superior realities of the kingdom of heaven.  It grabs ahold of the goodness of god even though it can't see it and it brings it by faith into its life.  But the end verse is also true.  Doubt is the confident expectation of disappointment because of what I've seen. 

If faith is confident expectation of the goodness of god based on what I have not seen, regardless of what I've seen, doubt is the confident expectation of disappointment because of what I have seen.  So what doubt does is it reaches into the inferior realities of the kingdom of darkness, grabs ahold of disappointment and literally pulls it into its own life.  It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that will steal your future.  So here is the question.  Where are you expecting disappointment?  That's a place you're believing a lie.  It's normal to be disappointed, it's not normal to have a spirit of disappointment.  It is normal to have unmet expectations in your life, it is demonic to expect to be disappointed when the favor of god rest upon your life. 

It's not just bad, it's demonic.  Do you remember the story of a dad with demon possessed boy?  He has got this little boy and he is demon possessed.  Guy tried everything.  He can't get his demon out of his boy.  Every opportunities, every doctor, every place.  He has tried every -- nothing has changed.  So finally one day, Jesus is in town and he shows up and he finally gets him in front of Jesus and he says Jesus, if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.  Jesus says, if you can.  Everything is possible for him who believes.  The man says, I do believe but help me in my belief.  In other words, he says, I'm expecting to be disappointed again.  What do you want from me?  And he took all the years of disappointment and he projected on that moment.  Now, compare that with the woman with a flow of blood.  Twelve years, she has had this disease, this sickness, twelve years.  Pablo says, she spends all her money on doctors.  She has tried everything.  Disappointment after disappointment after disappointment and yet when she sees Jesus walks by, she literally says to herself if I could just grab ahold of the hand of his garment, I will be healed. 

And she refuses to allow anything of yesterday to determine any expectation of that moment.  One expected to be disappointed, one expected the goodness of god.  Which one are you?  Is your faith based on what you have seen or what god has said?  See, we have to learn to deal with disappointment without coming into agreement with the kingdom of darkness, without picking up ungodly beliefs, without embracing the spirit of disappointment, without declaring the always and never over our own future.  That's what made Joseph so amazing is he refused to allow yesterday's disappointment to become tomorrow's expectations, so he fulfilled his destiny in a way few of us ever do.  He had hope and he experienced hope fulfilled. 

I mean listen to this when pharaoh pulls him out of prison, he gives him a wife and Joseph has two sons.  Genesis 41, he is now ruling Egypt.  Genesis 41, before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph from the wife pharaoh gave him.  Joseph named his first born son Manasseh and said it is because god has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household.  The second he named Ephraim and he said it is because god has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.  Are you kidding me?  He has two sons and he names them, one basically saying god has made me forget all my trouble and other one god has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.  In other words, I refuse to allow yesterday's disappointment than anything to do with the goodness of god today. And he wants to do the same with you.  He wants to take your past pain and turn it into your future purpose. 

See, if you can catch this, your destiny is tied into your disappointment.  I know you want to like strike that from the message but it's true.  Your destiny is tied into your disappointment.  Like the places in life where you're disappointed and yet you refuse to lose hope.  Those are the places where you have an authority, anointing and you will be the most fruitful in life.  God wants to use your disappointment to bring hope to others.  Just like Joseph's sons, it's in the land of your suffering where you are the most fruitful.  It's in those disappointments that all of the sudden you got a story to share.  You got revelation of goodness of god.  You got some wisdom and some understanding.  It's in that divorce that blew up, it's in that breakthrough that never came, it's in that healing that didn't look the way you wanted, it's in that job that you lost that you held on to hope in all of that and all of the sudden, you now have something to share with other people.  He makes you fruitful on the land of your suffering.

See, remember Joseph's destiny was not ruling Egypt, Joseph's destiny was loving, serving and saving people.  Your destiny, that's what we talked about in the whole series is not doing something or going somewhere.  But I want it to be, I know but it's not.  Your destiny is loving, serving and saving people wherever you are.  Yes, they threw you in the pit.  Yes, you might still be in prison.  But god is bringing you to a palace to save people's lives.  Your hope isn't just about you.  Your hope is about them.  They need you to have a hope so you can become fruitful in the land of suffering and offer them the fruit of the kingdom that they might come in and be saved.  So you got to stop thinking about your hope for you sometime.  Sometimes you got to think, I'm loved, so I can have hope and I can have faith for them.

Let me close it with this.  The entire story of Joseph is one big prophetic picture of Jesus.  The best part of that is it's just the story of Jesus.  So every week when I go through, I tell this is the story of Joseph.  It's the story of Jesus.  Joseph was his father's favorite son and he was given a robe of many colors and had a divine dream and destiny.  Jesus is the Father's favorite son, wore the robe of righteousness and before the foundation of world was going to come and save it.  Joseph was hated by his brothers and thrown into pit.  Jesus was hated by his Jewish brothers and was thrown into the grave.  Joseph was tempted and yet he kept his character and passed the test.  Jesus was tempted in every way that you and I are and yet he passed every test.  Joseph was accused and punished even though he did nothing wrong.  Jesus was accused and punished for our sins even though he did nothing wrong.  Joseph was lifted up and became the ruler of all of Egypt.  Jesus was lifted up and became the ruler of all of the world.

Joseph was given a wife by pharaoh and his sons names were he has forgotten all my trouble and made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.  Jesus was given a wife by the Father, the bride of Christ, the church and because of that, he has forgotten all of his trouble and Jesus became fruitful in his land of suffering, called the earth.  Joseph was lifted up to love, serve and save the world with the bread of life.  Jesus was lifted up to love, serve and save the world by giving the world the bread of life.  Joseph reconciled with his brothers and brought them into his kingdom.  Jesus wants to reconcile with you and bring you into his kingdom.  You see, the very last thing that Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 is really what Jesus wants to say to you and it's this.  You intended to harm me but god intended it for good to accomplish what's now being done, the saving of many lives.  So then don't be afraid.  I will provide for you and your children.

And he reassured you and spoke kindly to you.  Jesus wants to say everything that you ever did.  You intended it for harm but he is using it for good, the saving of not only your lives but the lives of the world.  And he wants to bring you into his kingdom and take care of you and your children and your children's children and your children's children's children and every generation that comes after you.  He wants to tell you, don't be afraid.  And he wants to speak kindly to you and remind you of that and that's where hope comes from.  Joseph was dead, buried and resurrected in a sense.  Jesus was dead, buried and resurrected and that's why we always have hope.  Hope is the confident expectation of the goodness of god today because of what Jesus did yesterday.  May you always have hope.  So close your eyes. 

So holy spirit, we just invite you into this place.  In this moment, in this time, we choose to turn our attention to Jesus, the source of our hope.  In this moment, in this time, we choose to break off the spirit of disappointment.  Every place we come into agreement with it, in Jesus name, we break it.  Every place where we have expected to be disappointed, we say no more.

Every place where we have allowed the brokenness of yesterday to become the expectation of today, we say we have had enough.  And instead, we say we have the favor of our father.  We wear the robe of righteousness because of the finished work of Jesus.  We know we're loved, so we walk in hope and so we have faith, faith to go face those disappointments head on and yes, they hurt and yes, they are hard and yes, we feel broken but we have hope because we know we're loved.  And so Jesus today, we remove those rocks that have kept us from getting rooted in you because we have been disappointed and we projected it on you, the only one who loves us no matter what.  So we confess and repent of all the places that we have given disappointment an authority in our lives.  We confess and repent of all the places we have said we were disappointed in you.  We confess and repent of all the places where we have refused to have hope.  So Jesus, right now supernaturally, would you restore hope to the deep cracks, to the deep places, to the depth of our heart that we would find hope and we would live with an expectation of the goodness of god.  Thank you Jesus.  In your name , we pray.  Amen.